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  Long Island Abundant Life Church 長島豐盛生命教會

2 Peter 2

12/4/2012

 
Click here to read today's passage on Bible Gateway.

False Teaching and Post-Modernity
It's pretty conceptual, this is an excellent thought about the greatest source of false teaching that has infiltrated the church in our day:  the seeming avoidance of the fact that Christianity is true for the idea that it is "good" or "it works".  This is a dangerous road:

    "Peter's warnings about false teachers are, unfortunately, as appropriate today as they were in his time. Indeed, as we have seen, our Lord has warned us to expect such deviations from the faith. The church will always have to contend with both the outright opposition of those who reject Christ entirely as well as the more subtle threats of those who claim the name of Christian but twist and distort the Christian message. Indeed, precisely because they are more subtle, the latter threat is often the more dangerous one.
    We can argue that the danger of false teaching is greater in our day than it has ever been. Why? Because we live in an era that is deeply suspicious of absolute truth. It used to be that people would argue about what religion, philosophy, or system of ethics was “right.” English literature classes in college debated about the “correct” interpretation of Charles Dickens’s Our Mutual Friend. However, college classes today discuss differing perspectives—often mutually contradictory—that one might validly see in Dickens’s great novel. The idea of “a correct interpretation” is dismissed at the outset. And when people discuss religion these days, they usually content themselves with a claim such as, “It works for me,” or, “It’s not for everybody, but it’s my road to spiritual fulfillment.”
    Our society has embraced pluralism and tolerance as its new gods. Observers of society and its intellectual movements have dubbed this new viewpoint “postmodernism,” signaling the shift from the typically modernist pursuit for truth to the current preoccupation with “whatever works for you.” Basic to this new way of approaching reality is an “incredulity towards metanarratives.” “Translated, this means: distrust any voice that purports to tell you that ‘that’s the way it is.’ ”9 We live at a time when everything is tolerated—except intolerance. In such a climate of opinion, Christians often find it both uncomfortable and difficult to take a stand for absolute truth. “What right do you have to impose your morality, or your religion, on me?” people will ask when we take a stand for the faith.
    As a result, many Christians have conceded the debate over truth and increasingly rely on a defense of the faith more congenial to our age: that of utilitarianism. “Our witness today is witness to our own faith, and in affirming its validity we may become less interested in its truthfulness than in the fact that it seems to work.” It is not hard to imagine the disastrous consequences of this move for the Christian faith. For the Scriptures claim Jesus Christ is “the way” to the Father, not one among many others. Absolute truth is built into the warp and woof of Christianity."
[1]

[1] Douglas J. Moo, 2 Peter, Jude, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996), 97-99.
Kevin Kuo
12/4/2012 01:40:13 pm

You see this post modern ideology rear its head in Star Wars where obi wan says only the sith deal in absolutes. It's like really?

greg
12/5/2012 02:46:49 pm

Really.

Andrei
12/4/2012 05:42:25 pm

Oh man... I've never seen Star Wars. I guess this ideology has been ingrained in our society for a while now?

MOO! again! MOO!!!

I was wondering if there was any time period or society that has embraced a philosophy similar to toast-modernism in the past? Or is that philosophy something that is unique to our times?

Kevin Kuo
12/5/2012 02:26:07 am

My first thought would be Genesis 6. Where God was so upset at the world's corruption and its violence. And also Judges 17:6 but its not the same relativism we see today. But more of people doing what they want to do instead of what God planned for them. Post-modernism is only a symptom of a larger problem which is rebellion. Rebellion against God has reared its head throughout history with ours starting in the 1960s with the hippie movement. And the problem with rebellion is that its a lesson that needs to be individually learned. Only some people will heed rebuke but most people like to try it themselves, its innate sin. Its like telling kids the stove is hot don't touch it. But for someone who has never experienced a burn they will be curious and think why is it so bad and then they touch it and then get burned and learn oops shouldn't do that in the future. Similarly society is that way. Righteousness in a culture only lasts a few generations and then people begin to question it and then they start "thinking" for themselves. While its good to have a solid relationship with God through dialogue instead of tradition I am not sure I would advocate rebellion just so you can know God better. I believe in an elect and that God's grace is for the many so that means there are some who are not going to be in that fold. So do you really want to chance that with rebellion? I think its better through dialogue.

greg
12/5/2012 02:50:40 pm

I would personally place rebellion before the 60's but your thoughts are good.

greg
12/5/2012 02:49:20 pm

Here and there it the past I'm sure, but the widespread acceptance is definitely only our times. As the name implies, it is a response to "modernism" that says that true knowledge is only that which can be tested and proven with absolute certainty. Post-modernism therefore denies the existence of absolute truth at all - truth is relative to the perceptions of each person. That's REALLY oversimplifying, but that's the basic idea. Many people would say that we've even moved past post-modernism to something else now, but there's not really a catchy name for it yet.

Andrei
12/5/2012 04:05:45 pm

Wow... crazy stuff. Thanks for the info.


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